My two cents

[octavius_x]

A few thoughts. This is not aimed at anyone, I just wanted to add my two cents. I've seen a few observational posts talking about the decline of fandom community on lj (esp in regards to tumblr) and have felt this way myself. pollinia says it best, "I am feeling nostalgic today, for the old days of KHR fic bursting off my screen, and for late-night

Comments

[taithe]

tumblr is kind of overwhelming and ADHD so I don't use it too often. The quantity over quality issue is definitely there, although the same advice people offer about fb may be applicable to tumblr: be more restrictive about what's on your dashboard. LJ is kind of slow for fandom so I usually browse /a/ which has a good balance of images and discussion for T&B.

On one hand I miss seeing a lot of discussion and laboring on LJ, but I have some fandom friends who fill that gap for me. That's one thing that AO3 hasn't been able to make up, because with the kudos function people don't comment as often and usually commenting is where the discussion/making new friends occurs!

In terms of personal contribution on LJ... well, this year I've written two 50,000+ WIPs along with a dozen short fics and made a few discussion posts. But I've had to slow down due to school and don't really advertise my stuff anymore except the occasional crosspost to AO3. Hrm, maybe I should try getting more involved around winter break.

[octavius_x]

Yes! Restriction of information flow, but like fb although it has mechanisms for filtering/privacy they are not necessarily used. bellicosus who does use tumblr with filtering in mind did highlight that it connects people with similar levels of excitement, also the linked tag system make search parameters easier--the sad thing is these are not hard alterations to add to the lj format. What is /a/ btw?

Oh mannnnn the commenting conundrum. Yes, I almost went looking for a conversation I saw years ago that went something like:

someone: NO one ever comments on my fic blahblabblah
someone else: Do you ever comment on other people's fic?
someone: well no

[readingredhead]

AMEN SISTER. I sort of had this realization over the summer and went Tumblr-free for the month of July and came to the conclusion that your conclusions are all totally correct. It also bothers me that Tumblr is far less about discussion, since it doesn't really have an effective reply system (I mean come on how can you have a blogging platform that does not have its own comments system??). The one thing that I do find myself using Tumblr for now is to "like" things I find interesting or provocative so that I can go back and write about them later...but rarely do I write about them on Tumblr. They end up on one of my other blogs most of the time.

Long story short, I am 100% behind your call to bring the "labor" back to LJ. Let's do this. :D

[nthcoincident]

Nothing productive to contribute, just strolling by to say I WILL LABOR WITH YOU ♥ I WILL. WE CAN HAVE LIKE A CLASS REVOLUTION. ON LJ.

I remember reading on someone's journal recently that she felt embarrassed to post fic because "no one spends that kind of energy on fandom anymore." Totally went into a funk of despair but I can see how people would think that--tumblr/etc. is all about the "re-," reblog, regenerate, reproduce, replay, mostly not the actual creation element. THE END OF AN ERA IS UPON US; I wasn't even around for the era itself so I feel sort of...cheated.